Various techniques of archery sighting have been practiced in the past. Some individuals utilize the tip of the arrow as a sighting aid and others concentrate on the target. The first of these techniques is generally referred to as the gap system or point of aim shooting, and the other is known as instinctive shooting.
An archer who utilizes instinctive shooting draws the bow, adjusts his sight picture until it feels good, and then releases the arrow. Although horizontal or windage sighting may be accomplished by sighting along the shaft of the arrow, elevational sighting must be done without any close reference. Whereas a relatively flat trajectory of a rifle allows the sight line to be nearly parallel with the axis of the bore, in archery the arrow must be propelled in an initial elevational direction considerably above the target so that it will arrive on target, since it is deflected downwardly by gravity along its path of flight. Depending upon the distance to the target, the elevational deflection of the arrow may be several feet in magnitude. Thus, when a front sight is attached to a bow and is adjusted to be correct when the bow is vertical, the orientation of the bow becomes critical since any shot with the bow canted to the left or right will be horizontally off target by as much as several feet. In fact, as shown by U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,071, the archery sighting device disclosed therein is for the purpose of maintaining the bow in a vertical position.
Included in the Prior Art is U.S. Pat. No. 2,918,049 which is directed to an archery bow having a view-finding reel which requires interpolation of the target's apparent position between the axis and circumference of the reel along a selected imaginary radial line in an appropriate quandrant of the reel's circle. The construction and mounting of the reel are appropriate for its purpose as a reel and view finder, but not as a sight, since range references are not provided and the aiming is done through interpolation and practice. Further, the sighting device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,505,985 is for compensating for elevation and windage, rather than rotation of the bow as in the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,894 discloses an adjustable sighting device for archery bows which has a separate attachment which is preset to indicate the orientation of the bow. U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,300 discloses a bow sight having a tubular ring which provides a frame of reference for sighting even when the bow is laterally inclined, but requires an adjustment of the positionment of the tubular ring for each lateral inclination of the bow. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,027,648 relates to a rather complex archery sight having a sighting window with a sighting edge which may be calibrated and rotated by adjustment screws so as to provide a vertical sight line when the bow is canted, thus requiring numerous adjustments prior to the shooting of arrows when the canting of the bow is varied.
The present invention has overcome the problems of requiring numerous adjustments to bow sights when the bow is tilted from a vertical position by providing a fixed simplified bow sight which may be used at virtually any angle from the vertical as desired without requiring adjustment.